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Monday, June 22, 2009

Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes...

Jeff was excited to learn this morning that I was planning a breakfast-for-dinner night this evening, which was heightened when I told him it was going to be these Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes!

Making these a little more unique, I pulled out my stash of blue cornmeal that I keep in the freezer to use as part of the dry ingredients. Yellow cornmeal is perfectly acceptable, but I figured we might as well bust this out since we were using fresh blueberries... at least, that's what I told myself. Compared to yellow or white, blue cornmeal comes across as being a touch more nutty with a slightly sweet edge over the other two.

To give the pancakes a little fluff and tang, a combination of thick buttermilk, milk, melted butter and an egg form the base of the liquid ingredients used to moisten the flour and cornmeal. When you pour this in the dry ingredients, use just a few flicks of the wrist to combine the batter and then let it be while you wait for your griddle to heat up. Lumps are good - if you work the batter too much, trying to get the batter completely smooth, you take the risk of ending up with tough pancakes! Lumps don't mean you'll end up with flour pockets... rest assured they will cook out!

This batter is more viscous than you might be used if you've never used cornmeal in your pancakes before, so resist the urge to thin it out. What happened to the blueberries? Well, instead of tossing them into the batter, the plump berries are tossed with a bit of granulated sugar and then sprinkled over the top as soon as you dollop the batter onto the griddle. This way each pancake has roughly the same amount and you won't end up with a few pancakes at the end that have no blueberries! Don't look for the typical bubbles on top to let you know when to turn these since the batter is more thick - once the edges turn matte and look like they have begun to set, then slide your spatula underneath to turn them over.

Serve a stack of these simply with a couple thin pats of butter, maybe a drizzle of your favorite warmed syrup, or since these are plenty moist on their own, a snowy dusting of confectioners' sugar would also do just fine on top. Not too thick, yet not paper thin either, I liked how beefing these up with cornmeal brought a heartier texture that was a welcomed addition at dinnertime. Unless you have a humongous griddle, you'll want to barely heat the oven to keep the first pancakes warm as you wait for the rest to be done.